Episode 2 Junior Bake Off

Welcome back to the baking tent of dreams.

In there, four young hopefuls are about to whisk, sieve

and ice their way through two demanding challenges

in a bid to impress two of the country's most formidable judges -

Mary Berry and James Martin.

But only one of them can go through to the semifinals.

This, my friends, is Junior Bake Off.

Today our bakers are pushed to their baking limit.

Go, go, go, go!

Everyone is desperate to impress.

They haven't bound on the top yet.

But who will come out on top?

Yes! Woo-hoo!

And whose baking efforts will flop?

I really do think they're going to collapse.

In today's heat four bakers will face two challenges.

First it's the Technical Challenge.

They'll need their best baking skills to follow James's recipe

for melt-in-the-middle chocolate fondants.

The second is the Showstopper where they're hoping the judges

will go wild for their jungle-themed cakes.

Only one baker will make it through to the semifinal...

But who will it be?

I'm very messy in the kitchen.

I use every bowl, everything has a dusting of icing sugar,

maybe a little bit of spilled egg over there, you know.

I like to challenge myself and choose tricky bakes

because it helps me develop new skills.

I think the judges are looking for something that looks good

and something that also tastes good

so you want to go back for a second helping.

Baking is one of my favourite hobbies

because it's such a sense of freedom.

You just put some store cupboard ingredients in a bowl,

put it in the oven and make something that's fabulous.

Baking is not just a hobby, it's a passion,

and I want to make a living out of it as well.

Being this close to the Bake Off tent, it feels like I'm in a dream.

It's all coming to life and I'm getting really excited.

The bakers first faced a Technical Challenge,

a test of their baking knowledge and skills.

Bakers, welcome to the Junior Bake Off tent.

Now, this is your first chance to impress the judges

with the Technical Challenge.

Mary and James would like you to bake the best chocolate fondants

that you can. So, James, what are we looking for?

The key to this is they've got to be firm on the outside.

And when you cut inside there should be a lovely gooey chocolaty centre.

Very important question - have you washed your hands?

ALL: Yes!

Oh, yeah! He's definitely washed his.

OK, guys, you've got 45 minutes.

On your marks, get set, bake!

These are experienced bakers.

If you want to bake yourself at home, get an adult to help.

To be in the marquee, it is really, really amazing.

It's crucial to evenly coat the moulds with butter.

That way the fondant shouldn't stick when they're turned out.

I'm quite excited and I hope they turn out right.

Judges James and Mary will be keeping a close eye on our bakers

at work, but what does it take to make the perfect chocolate fondant?

This is a tricky challenge. They look so professional.

The timing is critical to this.

You need that timer set, ready before it goes in the oven.

As soon as you put them in the oven, shut the door and press start.

It's just getting it just cooked enough just to hold it,

and the important thing is this liquid centre

and that's what we're looking for, really.

And while they're in the oven,

of course they can be making the raspberry coulis.

I didn't actually give them a recipe, to be honest.

They've got the raspberries, water, lemon juice and sugar,

and it's entirely how much sugar they put in.

Yes, and they must taste it. Let's hope they do.

I have, basically, made these at home before.

But, obviously, it all could go wrong.

11-year-old Ben has been baking for two years

and loves strong flavours so much he describes lemon-eating as his hobby.

The part of the recipe that I'm not looking forward to is tipping

them out cos they might collapse and make a big gooey mess on the plate.

The next step is to prepare the chocolate by melting it with butter.

You need to make sure that you keep the chocolate moving,

cos otherwise it will burn at the bottom.

12-year-old Girl Guide Ann has an in-depth knowledge

of the science of baking.

-You've been baking for how long?

-Five years.

So you must have a good chance here on Junior Bake Off. You reckon?

Erm, I think everyone's really good.

They've all got a lot of experience,

so I think we're all about level at the minute.

Keeping it close to your chest, I like it, I like it.

I'm just cracking the eggs and then whisking them.

Ten-year-old Finn has a big repertoire of recipes

he's created himself,

and loves getting his hands dirty when baking bread.

I've made chocolate fondant before,

but the only problem with it was I just couldn't get it out of the

mould because I don't think I greased it very well.

But with this one I'm feeling very confident.

The key to a perfect chocolate fondant

is in the whisking of the eggs and sugar.

It's got to be pale and fluffy.

This incorporates more air into the mix which helps it to rise.

It's not that easy trying to juggle two things at once.

Creative baker Ellie is 11 and dreams of opening her own cake shop,

and is already developing her baking techniques.

Because it's a round bowl,

I have to keep spinning it because I can't get up the edges.

So it means that you're mixing all of the egg

and you don't miss any out.

The melted chocolate is gently folded through the egg mixture

and carefully poured into the moulds.

Oh, shoot! Oh, there's a big lump of chocolate in here that didn't melt.

Oh, sugar.

Right, that's out of the way.

Looking good, looking delicious. Look at that. Mmm.

Smells good as well.

Oh, that smells delicious.

Doesn't it?

-You have some chocolate on your nose.

-What?

You have some chocolate on your nose.

-So you've got your oven all ready?

-Oven preheated.

-Well done.

Keep an eye on them.

Baking time is crucial.

Now, where's the timer?

Just a minute too long and the melt in middle will turn into sponge.

Where's the timer?

OK.

Er... How do you...?

Aha!

There we go. Five minutes.

I'm just making the sauce to pour on top.

This is with raspberries, sugar and lemon.

Getting the perfect raspberry sauce is a tricky balance of making

sure it's not too sweet or too sharp.

Mm, that's nice.

OK, bakers, you've got five minutes. Get a move on, guys.

Five minutes.

Go, go, go, go! Come on!

Oh, my milly-billy gosh. Wow!

They're looking really good.

-Very careful...

-Very careful. Serious.

There we go. Phew!

So, what are you expecting when that comes out?

I really do think they're going to collapse.

Oh, sugar!

Oh, phew.

Yes! Woo-hoo!

Oh, my goodness.

One minute left of this challenge.

-Turn it round.

-Oh, sorry.

These always work better when you turn it round.

Guys, you've got ten seconds to finish off your fondants.

OK, bakers, your time is up.

I'm done.

The Technical Challenge is over.

Please bring your bakes up to the table.

Take your time now, guys.

Excellent. Well done.

Mary and James will be expecting perfectly uniform fondants

that when cut open have a gooey melt in middle.

But have any been overbaked?

-Just look at that, James. Fantastic.

-That's pretty impressive.

-It's going to be quite a task for us, isn't it?

-Shall we start here then?

-Ellie.

-Ellie, I would be very proud if I had done that,

but you just notice on two of them they haven't come out cleanly.

The true test of this is really what they're like in the centre.

Nice and soft in the middle. Texture looks good.

-A sigh of relief I think, Ellie, yeah?

-Yes.

Shall we taste?

-I think she's got it just right.

-You like that one?

Now, what about that sauce?

-I like that it's sharp.

-On the whole, a very good effort.

And now we come on to Finn.

The reason why I wanted you to do four

is to get four absolutely perfect ones. There's probably one.

You can see the sauce is leaking out of it,

-so I'm going to go for the middle one, is that all right?

-Yeah.

-Still soft in the centre, probably had a little bit too long...

-OK.

..if I'm going to be honest with you, in the oven.

There's less sauce in the centre of it.

Flavour of that is fantastic.

-Tastes very good.

-And again, I love that sauce.

You haven't over-mixed it, you haven't put too much water in it.

It's a really good effort.

Ann, if you're looking at the height of these they're all exactly

the same size and shape.

Let's see what it's like in the centre.

Not quite so runny in the middle. So perhaps a second overbaked.

Lovely texture. What about that sauce?

-Not too much sugar, good consistency.

-Well done, Ann.

And now we come to you, Ben.

I know you were a little bit worried about turning it out.

You were really concerned and you thought,

-"Is it going to happen or not?"

-Yeah.

-And it did, didn't it?

That, to me, is a chocolate fondant.

Ben, you seem to have more sauce than anybody else.

That's because it is baked exactly to the right amount.

I'd buy that.

Great flavour.

-Fantastic.

-Lovely.

I thought it sank at the bottom, but obviously they didn't see that

and they thought it was brill, so I'm really happy now.

I'm just a tiny bit disappointed that it wasn't absolutely perfect,

because I tried really hard.

But I'm very confident about my Showstopper.

Their comments were really fair because I had rushed it a bit.

I'm just a bit disappointed that I didn't do it to my standards.

When James was cutting into my fondant, my legs were shaking

and I was really nervous and I was waiting to see

if it was gooey in the middle and it was, so that was good.

I think anyone could win at this moment in time.

So we're just all going to try our best for the next challenge.

Well done, guys.

It's the last chance Ben, Ellie, Finn and Ann

have to claim their place in the semifinal.

It's the Showstopper Challenge.

Right, bakers.

Mary and James would like you to take a walk on the wild side

and bake a cake that's inspired by today's theme, which is the jungle.

-Mary.

-We want you to be very creative with your recipes.

It can be any size, any shape.

It's entirely up to you,

but remember we're going to be looking at your decoration as well.

This is your last shot, guys.

Make it count. You've got an hour and a half to produce some magic.

On your marks, get set,

bake.

First Showstopper. I'm feeling really nervous.

I'm just really eager to get on and to try my hardest, really.

The whole idea of the Showstopper is that they show off how creative

they can be, how original they can be.

As we cut into the cake I want interest in there.

It's got to mean jungle.

I think you're going to end up with lots of green food colouring

and sparkles and different things.

You can make things as fancy as you want,

but when it comes down to it, it's all about the taste.

All the bakers have chosen a classic sponge mix for the base

of their jungle cakes.

Oh, dear.

Ann is mixing hers by hand.

Just creaming the butter and the caster sugar together,

and you need to make sure that it's really smooth

so that you don't get any lumpy bits in your cake.

She's baking a banana and chocolate-flavoured sponge,

which she'll shape into the face of a monkey.

I'm going to decorate it with fondant icing

and I've made fondant bananas to go around the side.

What about time? Has it worked when you've tried it before in the time?

Yeah, I've just made it in time, so hopefully it will all go as planned.

-Well, fingers crossed for today.

-Yeah, thank you.

I'm making a swamp cake. I call it Swampy, The Cake With A Bite.

Finn's swamp cake is made of two lime-flavoured sponges,

sandwiched with buttercream and coated with a chocolate ganache.

I've got a cake board here with the background.

As you can see I've used some spinach leaves as vines,

and they've all wilted cos in the jungle it's quite hot,

-and the leaves would probably wilt.

-Yeah.

-And then I have a sugar paste crocodile.

-Yeah.

And some submerged feet,

so I'm going to make it look like someone's drowning in the swamp.

And as you can see, the red,

-the crocodile has some blood on its tooth...

-Yeah.

-Oh...

And then I'm going to put some fudge cubes

-because you get debris in a swamp, obviously.

-Obviously.

-I haven't been in a swamp lately.

-Neither have I.

Not that I'd want to go in with that thing roaming around.

If Mary's overcome with the thought of Finn's swamp,

Ben may be running an even bigger risk.

I am baking a coconut-flavoured cake.

I know Mary doesn't really like coconut,

but hopefully she'll try it and then maybe she'll like it.

Ben's tropical coconut cake will be covered in green fondant icing

and lots of shop-bought sweets.

I like my coconut, but how are you going to tempt Mary to liking it?

-It'll have a Mary touch on it.

-Will it?

-Now, Ben, is that how you wanted the mixture to turn out?

-Yeah.

I made it at home and it was exactly the same

-and it turned out really well.

-What's in that recipe again?

Coconut, butter, flour...

-You sure you put the milk in it?

-Yeah.

-OK.

-Good luck.

-Thank you.

Hmm. I think I'm going to put a little bit more green in.

Ellie is baking a three-layered sponge, brightly coloured

to represent the plumage of the parrot

and decorated with fondant animals.

Well, Ellie, we've certainly got a bit of colour here.

Tell us all about your cake.

It's vanilla sponge,

but I've added food colouring to make the wow-factor.

They're going to be layered on top of each other with home-made jam

and butter icing in the middle.

Just be aware, the one that's the colour of James's shirt,

there wasn't quite so much of the mixture in there.

-Yeah, I actually meant that...

-Oh, did you?

It's because I stack them

and I did one yesterday and it sank down,

so I made the green a little bit bigger, the yellow normal

and then the red a little bit thinner

-so it doesn't push down as much.

-Well, I hope it all goes well.

-Good luck.

-Thank you.

Right.

Just relax, Finn!

Guys, you've got half an hour left to go. 30 minutes.

They haven't bound on the top yet.

And they're still rising.

Give it another minute and then I'll be OK.

Little tip - to check if the cake is baked,

insert a metal skewer into the centre.

If it comes out clean, it's done.

Baked.

Yeah, that's fine.

I think that they're a little bit overbaked,

but hopefully they'll taste all right.

They're nice and springy on both top and bottom,

so I'm pleased about that.

There it goes.

Not only does the cake have to taste good,

it will need some serious decorating to showcase the jungle theme.

I'm making some extra icing as plan B in case the icing

I already have doesn't cover the whole cake.

This is going to be grass for on the cake board.

The blue one's going to be a lake so that my crocodile can swim in it.

-Not bad at that, are you?

-Thanks.

Got some tiles in the bathroom you can do if you want.

Seedless jam. Yummy, yummy, yummy.

-Hi, Finn, how are you?

-Fine, thanks.

Do you want me to get you another plate?

I'll get rid of all this stuff for you.

-Oh, no, that's actually decoration.

-What?

-That's actually decoration.

-And there's a wasp.

-That's a really good theme.

-You've got animals and everything going on in there.

-Yes.

It's a swamp cake.

Just hope this goes over...

Oh, no.

I need to roll it out a bit. Oh, no.

Guys, you've got ten minutes left to bake. Ten minutes.

Come on.

-I can just put my monkey on top of it.

-Well done. Good thinking.

I'm just going to leave it like that and just put leaves around it,

so then it doesn't look too bad.

Now onto the ganache.

Cover that up with the ribbon.

Aww, my icing's melted cos it's a warm day. I'm quite panicking now.

The grated chocolate is supposed to be the fur of the monkey.

One minute. One minute left to go.

OK, guys, your time is up.

Please step away from your worktops.

For three of these bakers this is the last time

they will face Mary and James.

Ellie, you're up first.

I just think that I might have added a few too many flowers,

because it looked a bit like a florist's shop.

Other than that, I'm really proud of myself.

To make all this in one and a half hours - bake the cakes, cool them

and so forth, you managed your time well

and you've got a most attractive cake as a result,

but it really has to taste good.

I think this jungle is pretty vibrant anyway,

and I think the same can be said inside as well.

-It looks a bit like traffic lights though!

-Oh!

I think it looks great,

and considering that the red part of the sponge actually looked

the smallest, but in the end it's come out nice and even.

It's exactly what you said.

It's a lovely texture, beautifully light, well-layered, evenly cooked.

-Well done.

-Good effort.

I think my Showstopper worked really well.

It did turn out exactly the way I wanted it to.

I think they're going to say it's very, very well constructed

and it looks like a swamp.

So, Finn, I'm very pleased that you did that crocodile home-made,

because that's very important.

For me it hasn't quite got that wow factor.

I would've liked that crocodile to be much bigger and bolder,

to make me think of a swamp and danger.

You've got some nice layers there.

That's great, that chocolate chip on the bottom.

The sponge is light.

I can't taste the lime.

There's a little bit there.

-It certainly lifts it up a little bit. Well done.

-Well done.

-Thanks.

I'm not sure that I've done enough to get through

because everyone's done such amazing bakes,

so we've all got quite an equal chance of getting it.

It's a very pleasing little monkey, isn't it?

-It's a great effort, I have to say. It's fantastic.

-I love its eyes.

-I mean, look at it looking at us.

-Shall we try it?

It's certainly got a nice bake to it as well.

Nice and coloured all the way through.

-Now, you didn't put any filling in between the two sponges.

-No.

A little bit of that icing might have been nice in the middle.

The flavour's certainly there initially,

and then the chocolate starts to take over.

I like the idea that there's bananas in there. It's a truly jungle cake.

-Well done. It's lovely.

-Thank you.

-Very well done.

I'm feeling quite annoyed with myself a bit.

I think I rushed the decoration and I didn't really put much effort

into it, but hopefully the judges will take more notice

in the flavour.

Ben, there's a lot going on there. I think we'd better get in there.

Plenty of sweets on there.

-I would've liked to have seen some of those perhaps moulded by you.

-Yeah.

As I break my fork into it, it's really quite crumbly.

It's probably cos the coconut that's in there, sometimes you've got to

add a lot more moisture cos the coconut

acts as almost like a sponge.

It's a lovely flavour, but I would've liked a buttercream

or something in the middle, cos it's a little bit on the dry side.

There's a lot going on and everybody would get one or two sweets,

which of course they'd like that, wouldn't they?

Thank you very much.

Well, guys, four spectacular cakes. This is it.

You've done all you can do now.

It's down to our judges to decide who goes through to the semifinal.

-That was the toughest challenge.

-That was really tough.

Tension is rising amongst the bakers,

but it's up to Mary and James for the final decision.

Well, guys, how much talent is there in this tent today?

The Technical Challenge, it was faultless. Let's talk about Ben.

If my chefs produced four fondants like that, they would go

straight out into the restaurant.

But, in fact, when you looked at the other three,

they were also not far off that.

They must be immensely nervous, and look what they've achieved.

Well, let's move on to the Showstopper

and let's start with a big character - Finn.

He did make his own crocodile,

but I would've liked that crocodile to be twice the size

and he was rather lost in the chocolate

and all the other things on the top.

He's a bold little chap and he's got bold flavours.

-Unfortunately today it's probably let him down, really.

-OK, moving on.

-Let's talk about Ellie's cake.

-There was real skill in that cake.

She's got three different sandwiches, different colours.

She's got a lovely filling holding them together.

-I think she's done so well.

-How about Ben?

We were expecting great things from Ben, and sadly it was very dry.

He didn't put a filling in it. He didn't quite get there.

-I was disappointed because he'd done so well.

-Finally, how about Ann?

I just love these little bits of fruit.

The glitter on there really lifted it.

Yeah, she's just brilliant and brilliant with a brush,

an artist in the making.

But she didn't have a filling in the middle,

so as you take the piece of cake it would fall.

It just needed a little bit of moisture in the middle.

On the whole, a great effort.

It's a tough one, but it's up to you guys.

Only one can go through to the semifinal, so I'll sit back

and enjoy these with a cup of tea

while you're making that big decision.

Wow, bakers, it's been such an amazing day and you've done so well.

You should be very, very proud of yourself.

Obviously only one person can go through to the semifinals today,

and James and Mary have had to make that very difficult decision.

Now, the person that's going through

has shown fantastic ability,

wonderful use of flavours,

and their decorating skills were second to none.

The person going through to the semifinals today is...

Congratulations, Ellie.

Well done.

Her Showstopper was outstanding. She'd shown us all sorts of skill.

Yeah. To produce a cake like that in an hour and a half

under the pressure like they've been under today...

Every little flower, her monkey, everything, was home-made.

-It was good.

-We asked for a jungle theme and we got it.

-We got it.

I'm still in shock.

It was anyone's game and I'm just so pleased it was me,

and I'm just going to keep trying and give it everything I've got.

Next time, another serving of bakers enter the tent...

..to face the Technical Challenge of a marble cake...

-It just looks quite combined.

-This cannot end well.

-..and make a splash with their Showstopper.

-Whoops!

But only one can go through.

I can do it, I can do it.

Who will it be?

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

If you fancy baking, there's loads of Junior Bake Off recipes

waiting for you on the CBBC website.